A U.S. Army soldier from the United States Army Parachute Team, the Golden Knights, parachutes into show center during the Thunder Over the Boardwalk Air Show in Atlantic City in August.
Defense Department

The Army announced on Wednesday (Nov. 29) that a team of its researchers would work alongside scientists from Ukraine and Bulgaria to “understand and ultimately combat disinformation attacks in cyberspace.” The work is theoretical, and will span three years, meaning it will likely end after the US presidential election in 2020.

The team will work to develop theories for software that would grant nations “situational awareness,” by monitoring the internet and giving timely notifications that misinformation has been perpetrated. While the international researchers won’t work in the same physical lab, the Army writes in its press release that the team will work in a “virtual, distributed networked laboratory,” presumably meaning they will use email.

As the Army researches the topic, it’s becoming clear to the rest of the world (which simply refers to “cyberspace” as Facebook) that the technology companies who created the platforms over which misinformation is routinely shared probably shoulder the responsibilityof mitigating the practice. With any luck, the Army project will catch up sooner than the projected timeline.

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